Growing Up in Downing Street as Margaret Thatcher's Daughter

Oct 6, 2023 | “Carol, we’re going off to demonstrate against your mum, can you just remind us where her office is?” Margaret Thatcher's daughter Carol talks to Matt Chorley about the highs and lows of growing up with mum in No. 10.

Margaret Thatcher Auction Prompts 'Family Feud'

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Sir Mark Thatcher is alleged by friends to have fallen out with twin sister Carol over her decision to sell items belonging to the former prime minister

Margaret Thatcher’s family are embroiled in a bitter family feud over an auction of the late prime minister’s personal possessions, it has been claimed.

Baroness Thatcher’s son Sir Mark Thatcher is said to have objected to his twin sister Carol’s decision to stage a sale of handbags, shoes and mementoes at Christie’s auction house this week.

The sale of more than 400 items is expected to raise upwards of £500,000.

According to friends the 62-year-old twins “cannot bear to be in the same room”. » | David Barrett, Home Affairs Correspondent | Sunday, December 13, 2015

Carol Thatcher: 'My Mother's Place in History Is Assured'

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Baroness's Thatcher daughter has spoken of "tough and tearful week" ahead and thanked those who paid tributes to her mother.

In her first public statement since the former Prime Minister's death five days ago, Carol Thatcher also said that her mother had told her daughter that she was confident her place in history was "assured".

"I feel like anyone else who has just lost a second parent," Thatcher's daughter said. "It's a deeply sad and rather thought-provoking landmark in life. » | Robert Watts | Saturday, April 13, 2013

Margaret Thatcher's Distress at BBC Treatment of Carol over 'Golliwog' Comment
THE TELEGRAPH: Baroness Thatcher is distressed by the BBC's treatment of her daughter Carol who was sacked from her reporter's job after likening a black tennis player to a "golliwog".

Baroness Thatcher and her daughter Carol in the Royal Box at The Lawn Tennis Championships at Wimbledon, London. Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph can disclose that the former Prime Minister believes the furore over her daughter's remarks in a BBC Green Room is a form of political correctness gone mad.

The BBC, which has received 2,250 messages of support for Thatcher and only 60 against, refused yesterday to reinstate her in her roving reporter's role on the One Show after she referred to a tennis player as a "golliwog" during a backstage discussion about the Australian Open.

With many critics accusing the BBC of a vendetta against Thatcher, 55, because of her mother, a close friend of the former Prime Minister said: "Lady Thatcher feels sad for Carole who has been hurt by all the accusations against her. But she thinks the whole row is a load of nonsense." >>> By Andrew Pierce | Thursday, April 30, 2009

Golliwog Row: Carol Thatcher 'Sacked Because She Wouldn't Apologise'
Carol Thatcher was sacked by the BBC because she refused to apologise for using the word "golliwog", Jay Hunt, the controller of BBC One, has said.

Ms Hunt defended the corporation's decision to fire Thatcher from her job as a roving reporter for The One Show, insisting her description of a French-Congolese tennis player had been "hugely offensive".

She said Thatcher had received a harsher punishment than Jonathan Ross, who was suspended after leaving lewd messages on the answering machine of the actor Andrew Sachs, because unlike him she had declined to say sorry.

"We have given Carol ample opportunity to offer a fulsome and unconditional apology for the offence that she caused ... and she's chosen not to do so," Ms Hunt said.

"Jonathan, as soon as he overstepped the mark, was completely clear that he needed to apologise, and he apologised publicly... He said immediately that he was sorry for the offence he caused."

"Regrettably ... Carol doesn't think she has anything to apologise for, and for that reason it is inappropriate for her to continue to work on a show that prides itself on its diversity."

Thatcher refused to apologise after being tipped off by the programme's executive producer that the remarks would be published in a newspaper report.

It is thought that after the comments became the centre of a public row, she privately said she was sorry for causing offence but insisted the comments had been meant in jest.

Ms Hunt said this was not true, saying: "We have ascertained subsequently from the people that were party to the conversation that by nobody's reckoning could it have been deemed to have been used in a jokey fashion."

She added that the excuse would have been insufficient anyway, adding: "Do we think it's appropriate in 2009 for somebody to explain away the use of a word that is deemed by a very substantial proportion of the public to be hugely offensive as a joke?" >>> By Jon Swaine | Thursday, February 5, 2009

THE TELEGRAPH: Carol Thatcher's Golliwog Comment Was Offensive and Racist, But How Many Heard It?

The BBC's reaction to Carol Thatcher's comment was hysterical, says George Pitcher.

First, let's get something that may be counter-intuitive for most readers out of the way. Carol Thatcher is not blameless in the "golliwog" scandal. I've never met her, but I'm more than willing to accept from those who know her that she is no kind of racist. But you don't have to be a racist to say racist things.

There is a casual, lazy racism of which we can all be guilty; I'm certain that, having also grown up with Robertson's jam, I could easily make the golliwog mistake. And if I did so and caused offence, I like to think I would apologise for it, as I understand Thatcher has tried to do. But her offence is utterly eclipsed by the fatuous, vindictive, officious and sanctimonious response to it from Planet BBC. It is almost beyond belief that a media organisation supposedly staffed by sentient adults could have moved so sententiously to break this butterfly on its wheel.

Yesterday morning, much of the nation sat open-mouthed and frozen over its breakfast, or struck dumb about our ablutions, as Jay Hunt, the controller of BBC One, attempted to justify her organisation's thought police in their Stasi-like pursuit of Thatcher. It is worth trying to deconstruct what she had to say in this extraordinary performance.

Under very respectable cross-examination from Today presenter Sarah Montague, Hunt claimed that Thatcher's remark was "hugely offensive", that the remark was made "in a public space" and that Thatcher had refused the BBC's demand to make a "fulsome and unconditional apology", so she had to go. >>> By George Pitcher | Thursday, February 5, 2009

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback) – Free delivery >>>

Carol Thatcher Dropped from BBC Show after 'Golliwog' Gaffe
Photo of Carol Thatcher courtesy of The Times
TIMES ONLINE: The BBC announced today that it has no plans to use Carol Thatcher in her regular presenting slot after she used the racial epithet “golliwog” during an off-air discussion.

The daughter of Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister, made the remark when discussing a tennis player in the green room after filming for the One Show, a daily magazine programme shown on BBC One.

After discussions held last night between Thatcher and the corporation, a statement was released this afternoon.

A spokesman for the corporation said: “There are no confirmed plans for Carol to be working on the One Show at the present time. It’s a very pressing matter for the BBC to get resolved and we are working as hard as we can to do so.”

Thatcher, who was crowned Queen of the Jungle in the 2005 reality series I’m A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, has been a regular presenter on the series for three years and is described as part of the family on the BBC website.

She made the controversial remark during a discussion with the show’s host Adrian Chiles after filming. Thatcher was immediately challenged about the remark according to reports, but she only apologised yesterday dismissing the comment as a “joke”. >>> Nico Hines | Tuesday, February 3, 2009

MAIL Online: Furious Carol Thatcher Accuses BBC of Vendetta Against Her After Leaking of Golliwog 'Joke'

The Carol Thatcher race row intensified today as attention centred on who leaked her 'golliwog' remark.

Her agent pointed the finger at a member of the production team on BBC's The One Show and suggested that it was part of a vendetta against Baroness Thatcher's daughter.

Comedian Jo Brand, who was a guest on the show, denied that it was her.

The 55-year-old daughter of the former prime minister was axed by the corporation after she refused to apologise for using the term while describing a black tennis player thought to be Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Thatcher, a roving reporter for the programme, made her comments during a post-show conversation with presenter Adrian Chiles and several guests including Brand.

Today Thatcher's spokeswoman, asked on Talksport if she believed that this is a personal campaign against Thatcher, said: "That's what I believe, yes. It has been condoned by the producers of the BBC who haven't acted to discipline that member of staff."

She added: "This was a private conversation held in private, amongst individuals in the green room after she Carol Thatcher had been on The One Show. >>> By Daily Mail Reporter | Wednesday, February 4, 2009

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback & Hardback) – Free delivery >>>